BSP extends deadline for swap of old banknotes anew

MANILA- - Deadline for the exchange of New Design Series (NDS) banknotes to New Generation Currencies (NGCs) has been extended again to end-June 2017 from end-March this year.

Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Deputy Governor Diwa Guiningundo, in a briefing Thursday, said the second deadline extension to swap old paper bills was made to heed the public's clamor.

He disclosed that as of Feb. 28 this year, only two percent of bank notes in the system are consisted of NDS, amounting to Php 19.2 billion.

He said total NDS circulating in the economy to date accounts for about 8.6 percent, at 284 million pieces, of the total 3.3 trillion banknotes.

NDS do not have monetary value anymore since end-2016.

Guinigundo said the extension also applies for Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs).

The central bank earlier gave Overseas Filipinos, Filipino immigrants and non-residents until March 31 this year to register their NDS holdings with the BSP, with the maximum amount set at Php 50,000.

BSP Cash Department Deputy Director for Currency Issue and Integrity Office (CIIO) Grace Malic said that in the first two months of the initial deadline extension, about 7.2 billion pieces of NDS worth Php 2.8 billion were exchanged.

NDS were launched in 1985 while NGCS, which features the new BSP logo and has more security features, were released in 2010.

Demonetization of the NDS was done three decades after the central bank issued the NDS.

Under Section 57 of Republic Act (RA) No. 7653 or the New Central Bank Act, the BSP may replace notes of any series that are more than five years old and coins that are more than 10 years old.

The BSP defines demonetization as "the process of removing the monetary value of a legal tender currency by the issuing authority."

Demonetized currencies will no longer be accepted for payment of goods and services.

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